FORT WORTH, Texas -- Tony Stewart's crew chief, Darian Grubb, succinctly summed up the emotion surrounding his Stewart-Haas Racing crew Saturday night in the aftermath of the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.The garage was dark and the mood around Stewart's hauler was blacker as his men digested taking the white flag in third and finishing 12th, when the No. 14 ran out of fuel on the last lap of the 1.5-mile track"It kinda sucked," Grubb said outside his transporter, which the crew had almost finished loading less than half an hour after the checkered flag.Grubb chuckled as he said it, but considering he had just come out of a debrief session with his owner/driver, in which they assessed a potential winning strategy blown apart by a pit road speeding penalty; and then running out of fuel on the verge of saving the night -- that Grubb would even speak was commendable."Highs and lows," Grubb said with a shake of his head as he recalled the race's final sequence, in which Stewart led twice for 12 laps in the final 90 circuits. "We basically had to take the hands that were dealt to us and try to be the ones that could make it [on fuel]."And we could have. I think we had a 15-second lead and we might have been able to pedal it and save some fuel."Stewart and Kurt Busch got in a position where they were slightly off-sequence with the rest of the lead group, which included dominant winner Matt Kenseth, runner-up Clint Bowyer and third-place Carl Edwards.Busch made his penultimate stop on Lap 271 and Stewart came to pit road at Lap 276, with 58 to go. But Stewart broke the speed limit entering the service alley for what he planned as his final stop."More times than not, the fastest car ends up winning, and I thought that happened [Saturday night]," Kenseth said of Stewart's gambit. "I was real worried about Tony's deal -- of course, I worry about everything."Kenseth could have saved his sweat."Instead, we got that [speeding] penalty and we just had to go, go, go instead of saving everything we could get," Grubb said. "I absolutely knew we were gonna be that close [to running out], and there absolutely was no way that he could save any fuel. After we got that penalty we just had to go and try to get every position we could get, and just hope for the best."Even with coasting across the line, after losing nine positions on the last lap, Stewart finished 12th and unofficially moved up to 10th in the Sprint Cup drivers' points."You know, it took almost the whole race to crack the top 10, so to be in the position we were in there at the end, I guess is a good thing," Stewart said several hours after the race in a team release. "But when you're in that position and you can't capitalize, it's pretty frustrating. Speeding on pit road didn't exactly help the cause, either."But it left Grubb and his men -- not to mention Stewart -- wondering what could have been after a gutsy comeback from a lap down, in which Stewart ran in the top 15 for the entire second half of the race."We know exactly what zone we got caught in for speeding," Grubb said, but dismissed the thought that Stewart might have been 'playing' the speed zones trying to gain an advantage. "You can't play with that zone -- we were speeding."Stewart had cycled through that pit sequence just outside the top 10, but he immediately had to hit pit road for a pass-through penalty, and when he did that -- after apologizing to his crew on the radio and admitting that he had sped -- he fell well back in the field.But "quit" wasn't in the cards for Stewart-Haas on this night -- although Stewart did decline to come out of his hauler to speak with the media."We had a crashed race car after our first pit stop and the guys didn't give up -- we came in and worked on it two or three times," Grubb said. "We got stuck in the pits between [A.J. Allmendinger] and [Marcos Ambrose] and it was just really a hard day -- but we kept fighting."We ended up staying out one time, trying to get into our fuel window and ended up going a lap down with that run, but the [free pass] came and that was awesome for us -- that put us in sequence to do what we needed to do to try to win the race; and it just ended up not working out for us."But Grubb said the Texas race was a microcosm of what his SHR team was all about. Stewart led the points after the third race of the season, but had slipped back to 11th after Martinsville."We will absolutely go to Talladega [next week] with our heads up," Grubb said. "We've been doing it for a couple weeks now, and we'll keep doing it and keep fighting and trying to get better."

Those who intentionally live off another’s labor will always want more free stuff!

With a fast car and a hunger to end a 76-race winless streak, few in the field had anything for Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth Saturday night in Texas. Leading more laps than he had in all of 2010, Kenseth scored his first victory since sweeping the opening weekends in 2009. “It's been a long time,” Kenseth said. “You talk about the second place finishes here, and I got beaten at the end of a lot of these races. It's great to finish second if you can't win. But another way is like getting kicked in the gut. You have to come back.”While Kenseth dominated Saturday night’s race, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart tried to make it interesting, using pit strategy to try and stretch their fuel to the end and steal a win. With the leaders peeling onto pit road in the closing laps, it became more and more apparent the gambles would not pay off and they would be the ones getting kicked in the gut.Green flag pit stops were the name of the game Saturday, as the race was slowed only five times for cautions. Fighting to overcome early struggles, Busch’s crew chief Steve Addington and Stewart’s crew chief Darian Grubb knew it would take a gamble to get their cars in contention for a solid finish. During the opening stages of the race, Busch fought an ill-handling car and struggled to keep up with the changing track conditions. Their alternative pit strategy started from the first round of stops, when the No. 22 and teammate Brad Keselowski opted not to pit. Staying out, Busch and Keselowski battled for the lead with Kenseth after the restart. On that first stop where the Penske teammates stayed out, Stewart had his first troubles of the night. Exiting the stall after completing service, the No. 14 hit the No. 36 of Dave Blaney as he was coming in to his stall. The contact sent Blaney spinning and damaged the right front fender on Stewart’s car. As Kenseth, Busch and Keselowski battled for the lead it became clear the Penske teammates would have to render their track position and hit pit road before the rest of the leaders. However, when David Gilliland hit the wall on Lap 47, the pair were saved from pitting under green and put on the same sequence as the rest of the field. When the field headed to pit road on Lap 116 under the third caution of the day, the Penske teammates again opted for a different strategy than the leaders, this time taking only two tires. Restarting out front, those on fresher tires eventually retook command of the race as Busch and Keselowski fell backwards. With the race stretching through a long green flag run, Busch began to lose the handle on his car as the track transitioned from day to night. “I’m tired of working this hard,” Busch said on the radio. “I mean every single race I have to drive it over my head.”As frustration mounted for Busch, Addington was hard at working figuring out a strategy that would get them a solid day. While Busch was struggling, Stewart’s No. 14 was coming back to life. With the damage patched up on the right front, Grubb told his driver to stretch the fuel. When green flag stops began to cycle through on Lap 200, Stewart was the last lead lap car to pit on Lap 206. Emerging a lap down in 12th, Stewart caught a break when the fourth caution flew on Lap 208 allowing him to get the free pass and back on the lead lap. Breaking into the top 10 for the first time on Lap 237, things were beginning to come together for Stewart as the final 100 laps clicked away. As green flag stops once again got underway when Kenseth pitted from the lead on Lap 251, it was clear Busch and Stewart were ready to gamble. Stretching their fuel mileage further than any others, Busch hit pit road from the lead on Lap 271 and Stewart pitted with the lead on Lap 276. While Busch’s stop was clean, Stewart was tagged by NASCAR for speeding on the entrance of pit road. After being busted, Stewart said on the radio, “Sorry, I knew I did it.”Back in 16th, Stewart and Grubb remained confident they would make it the distance on fuel, while others would have to stop one more time. When the leaders headed to pit road under green flag conditions with less than 40 laps to go, Addington and Grubb again kept their drivers on track to stretch the fuel mileage. Taking the lead on Lap 297, Busch began to distance the field as he attempted to go as long as possible before coming in for service. With 30 laps to go, Busch maintained a 15 second lead over Kenseth. Losing six-tenths of a second a lap, Kenseth closed the gap as Busch ran around on older tires. Forced to pit with 13 laps to go, Busch took only two tires and fuel as Kenseth and the rest of the leaders drove past. When the checkered flag fell, Busch was 10th, the same place he started. With Kenseth cruising to the win, Stewart battled with Carl Edwards for the third spot. Taking the white flag, the tank ran dry and Stewart was out of gas. Coasting across the finish line, Stewart would go from contending for third to finishing 12th, the last car on the lead lap. “You know, it took almost the whole race to crack the top-10, so to be in the position we were in there at the end, I guess is a good thing,” Stewart said. “But when you’re in that position and you can’t capitalize, it’s pretty frustrating. Speeding on pit road didn’t exactly help the cause either.”One week after vigorously denying they had not gambled with their calls on pit road, Grubb lost out on a solid finish when their strategy came up one lap short. For much of the season, mistakes on pit road, along with penalties and pure luck have kept this team from capitalizing on their decisions. For Busch, on the other hand, Saturday night was more of the same in the car. Extremely critical of the team, Addington and the cars on the radio nearly every week, the team’s failed strategy Saturday night was simply a continuation of their year-long struggles. “Just a hard-fought battle all night,” said Busch. “We qualified 10th, finished 10th. We led laps when we were off-sequence, but overall a hard fought battle to get the car dialed-in once again. We struggle to make adjustments as we go. We got something towards the end to make something of it. Overall, we got off-sequence which might have helped preserve that top 10. It’s tough. We want to compete for top fives and wins and we’re only getting top 10s right now.”“A little rough tonight,” Addington said. “I didn't think we would be that much off to start the race. It seemed like when we adjusted on the car, we would get different results. It's a bit of a mystery. We had to use some different strategy and we really shouldn't have to do that. We should be up front challenging for wins. We just need to get a handle on this thing right now. I'm proud of everyone on this team who worked so hard on the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. We did what we had to do to manufacturer a top-10 finish.”As the season approaches the one-fourth mark, these two teams have had consistent issues nearly every week. Still very much in contention – Busch is fifth in points, while Stewart is 10th – the issues plaguing these two organizations need to be solved in order to be a championship caliber team.

Those who intentionally live off another’s labor will always want more free stuff!

He is one to talk when it comes to hoggin this site on different threads. I would not listen to him about different people leaving. You are no more to blame than anybody else is. If anything, he is one to look at, in my opinion for the amount of stuff he has spread around on this site.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

This is Not a popular subject. Got these from another site. I didn't know Tony was racing dirt Friday Night until I saw these.His focus on the Cup Series is the most important thing to me and him racing friday nite is a distraction that he doesn't need. JMO ps...I know he loves the dirt but it should be on an off weekend and NOT when the team needs so much work. Would like to hear your opinions on this if they are CIVIL Please.

How is he going to manage racing in Paducah on the 15th when he's supposed to be practicing his cup car on the 15th in Talladega from 3:30-4:30. Guess there won't be much debriefing over final practice. Good to see he focusing on the problems with his cup team......NOT

This is perhaps one of the stupidest things I've heard of him doing these days! He practices from 3:30-4:30 in Tallagega...and then has to be in Paducah to race at 7, That's only 2.5 hours! Unless, of course, he cuts his Cup practice time short. It's approximately 400 miles from Talladega to Paducah. IF his jet can make it without refueling, he will slide in with a bit of time to spare. I bet he slinks out on practice early.

I am not by any means defending him on this as I feel he should be working on the cup side of things but this one of the tracks he part owner in so I can see him being there for this.

I believe that since he's is an part owner at SHR, that should be of bigger importance over being a part owner at Paducah. He lets his management team run Eldora for the most part and only shows up for the bigger races there.

Those who intentionally live off another’s labor will always want more free stuff!

Just a few weeks ago, all of us had at least a few misconceptions about the 2011 NASCAR season. Some of us were more wrong than others.Below is a list of incorrect statements. Count up how many of these you said – or thought – before the season started, and see how you stack up using the key below:• "Trevor Bayne? Nice kid, but he has no shot to win a Sprint Cup race this year."• "Kyle Busch will always come across as a jerk during his interviews."• "Just because Carl Edwards finished last season with two straight wins doesn't mean he'll have a fast start this year."• "It doesn't matter what crew chief you stick with Dale Earnhardt Jr., it's not going to help anything."• "Jeff Gordon just doesn't know how to win races anymore. He's washed up."• "Richard Childress only signed Paul Menard for the sponsorship money. Menard won't do anything at RCR!"• "Boy, that new 'Pick a series' points system is really going to put the spotlight on the Nationwide-only drivers."• "Denny Hamlin is going to pick up right where he left off in the Chase."• "There's no way ESPN will re-sign Rusty Wallace."• "It's cool that Brad Keselowski is on Twitter, but he probably won't share his opinion very much since all the drivers are scared of getting fined."

• "The re-designed nose on the front of the Cup cars is going to have a HUGE impact on the racing."• "Joey Logano is going to make the Chase."• "Having only one race at Fontana won't do anything to help attendance there."• "Sure, there wasn't much controversy at Daytona, Phoenix and Las Vegas – but I'll bet you 'Have at it, boys' is going to show itself at Bristol!"• "Man, those Gibbs motors look STRONG this season!"• "The two-car hookups at Daytona are going to make for a terrible race."• "I highly doubt Jimmie Johnson will ever start tweeting."• "I highly doubt Jeff Gordon will ever start tweeting."• "What!? Brad Keselowski has a brother who races??"• "Write this down: Kevin Harvick will go winless this year."

***KEY***You made 1-5 of the above statements: You are the NASCAR Nostradamus. Quit your job immediately and move to Las Vegas.You made 6-10 of the above statements: Nobody's perfect, but it's clear you follow the Sprint Cup Series closely, and your knowledge has paid off. (Psst...can you help me with my fantasy picks?)You made 11-15 of the above statements: Uh, have you been hanging out with Charlie Sheen recently?You made 16-20 of the above statements: Congratulations! You are now officially qualified to be a NASCAR "expert." See you at the track!

Those who intentionally live off another’s labor will always want more free stuff!

Well peanut, whom ever posted that Tony's racing in Paducah on the 15th is wrong. He's racing there on Friday the 22nd & there's no cup racing that weekend because they race Talladgea the 17th & nothing until RIchmond 4/30.

Smoke
"We know that Mother Nature is a woman. If she were a man, there would be no rain on race day."